The present invention relates generally to a baler for forming cylindrical bales of crop material, commonly referred to as a round baler, and more particularly to an improvement in a converging apparatus for a round baler pickup that is wider than the bale forming chamber of the baler.
Round balers rely on a pickup apparatus with a set of tines that engage a windrow of crop material on the ground and lift it upwardly and then urge it rearwardly to a transverse infeed opening into a bale-forming chamber. Pressure to increase efficiency in crop packaging operations has resulted in the prevalence of crop pickup units that are significantly wider than the bale forming chamber into which the crop material is fed. A wider pickup allows the baler to handle wider crop windrows and also results in better crop fill at the lateral extremes of the resultant bale. Historically, wide pickups have incorporated augers situated at the extremes of the pickup width to converge the crop laterally inwardly to achieve a width of the crop mat being fed into the bale chamber that is approximately the same as the chamber width. Longitudinal placement of the converging augers requires an elongated feed table, increasing the distance the crop must travel between the pickup tines and the bale chamber inlet opening. A secondary feed mechanism, such as a staffer or rotor, is often necessary to convey the converged crop mat along the lengthened feed table and into the bale chamber.
Although quite effective, secondary feed mechanisms add complexity and cost. Without them, the potential for dogging the bale chamber infeed opening increases. Efforts to eliminate the secondary feed mechanism has focused on the positioning the lateral converging augers mounted on the pickup unit as dose as possible to the crop inlet opening. Some efforts include the use of multiple parallel augers to provide greater lateral force on the crop mat and to prevent crop overrun of a single auger and the resultant crop loss from the baler. While such designs may reduce the need for a secondary feed mechanism, the benefits are offset by the increased complexity in the converging apparatus.
It would be a great advantage to provide a converging apparatus for use on a round baler having a pickup unit substantially wider than the bale forming chamber that eliminates the need for a secondary pickup feed mechanism, reduces the likelihood of clogging, and overcomes the above problems and limitations.